With over 1.8 million people having borrowed to pay for their summer holidays, we consider what you can do if the summer has left you with debts you are struggling to pay.

According to the insolvency trade body R3, Brits borrowed 40 per cent more in 2011 than 2010 to cover the cost of this summer’s holidays. On average each person took on additional debts of approximately £1580.

The cost of the summer has certainly increased this year with everyday expenses such as petrol for travel and food rocketing upwards.

These increases have a significant knock on affect if you are trying to keep the kids amused during the long 6 week holiday with even the simplest day trips costing more. This is to say nothing of paying for two weeks away for the family.

It is therefore easy to see how many people have felt the need to borrow more to get through the summer. However with incomes remaining static or even falling, paying back the summer spending will not be easy. We look at some of the ways that your summer debts can be repaid.

Budget to pay off your holiday debt

If your debt has increased by more than you intended over the summer, you need to put a plan in place to pay this off as fast as possible.

The first step to achieving this is to review your finances and make sure you are in control of your monthly expenditure. You should complete a monthly living expenses budget and compare this to your income.

Make sure you have a sufficient in your budget to pay off your debt in a reasonable time. If you don’t then consider areas of your expenditure where you can cut back to free up cash to increase your debt repayments.

Budgeting to pay off your debt in this way is never an easy task. However, it is far better to do this than only paying the minimum amount back to your credit card each month which will result in you paying interest charges of up to 30 percent.

Are you struggling with debt after your summer holidays? Give us a call on 0800 077 6180 or complete the form below to speak to one of our experts

Can a Debt Management solution help?

If having reviewed your finances you find that there is simply not enough money available each month to pay off your summer debts, you should then consider a debt solution.

There are different debt solutions available depending on how much debt you owe in total and your other financial circumstances. The main two are called a Debt Management Plan (DMP) and an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA).

Both of these debt solutions help you to reduce the amount you have to pay towards your debts each month so that the payments fit within a budget that you can afford.

This is very important if you have a debt problem. Both the DMP and IVA will ensure that you have enough money each month to pay for your priority bills such as your rent, mortgage and other essential living expenses.

This is therefore a far better solution than simply trying to struggle on with your debt and perhaps be forced into borrowing more to make ends meet.

Save for next year’s holiday

The financial situation for families in the UK does not look as though it will get much easier in the foreseeable future.

Prices for essential items such as petrol and food certainly do not show any signs of coming down. On top of that wages are likely to remain static or even fall for some people as unemployment rates continue to increase.

With this background it is important that you start planning now so that you can avoid getting into debt again next summer. Saving a little each month towards the summer expenditure will reward you richly in 12 months time.

However if your debts are already so great that simply repaying them is a problem let alone being able to save anything for next summer, then it is important that you get debt advice and implement a debt solution before the situation becomes worse and starts putting things like your health, home and relationship at risk.